Christmas Wishes
by Darkfire Galaxy
Summary: Maddy and Rhydian are getting ready for Christmas together. But their bonds are tested when a secret Maddy has kept from Rhydian is revealed and a crisis occurs at Shannon's place due to a 'harmless' prank going wrong. Can they work things out for themselves, or will this damage their relationship permanently?


Wolfblood

Christmas Wishes

"Maddy, just get off the chair, you'll never manage it." Rhydian shook his head in exasperation as his girlfriend just ignored him and tried to climb into the tree. "Maddy, it's not going to work! Just let me lift you up."

"There is no way in hell you are getting up on this chair and lifting me." Maddy said as she climbed higher and managed to reach up and lodge the star in some tree branches near the top.

"That's not on properly." Rhydian observed.

"I'm five foot one, Rhydian. It'll do." Maddy snapped as she tried to climb down. She looked down to see why she wasn't getting anywhere fast, only to see that her right foot was caught up in tinsel. "Rhydian, I'm stuck!" she called over to him. "Give me a hand down!"

"No. You should have listened." Rhydian shrugged.

"You can be an arsehole at times, you know?" Maddy growled as she worked her foot free. "There, you see? I didn't need you anyway." Just then, she stepped backwards and missed the chair. Rhydian ran forwards and caught her before she hurt herself. Instantly, she vaulted out of his arms and landed beside him.

"Maddy, what the hell is wrong with you today?" Rhydian asked. "Why won't you just let me help you reach up there?"

"Two people on that chair can be dangerous." Maddy rolled her eyes and said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I could still have lifted you up to..."

"Rhydian, I don't need you lifting me up and bruising my ribs just to put a star on the Christmas tree!" Maddy snapped at him.

"I was bruising your ribs?" Rhydian couldn't believe it. "If I was hurting you, why didn't you just say so? Now I feel awful about it."

"Yeah, well you thought you were helping and I didn't want to make you feel bad." Maddy defended herself.

"That just makes me feel worse!" Rhydian couldn't believe Maddy had gone so long without saying anything. "If I ever do something that hurts you again, please let me know. I don't want anything like that kept secret between us."

"I know. I'm sorry, Rhydian." Maddy wrapped her arms around him, managing to hide the pain as he hugged her back.

"So, how badly did it hurt you?" Rhydian asked. Maddy lifted her shirt to just above her stomach line. He could see the bottom half of the bruises from where he'd lifted her up at Mrs Vaughan's place to get a glass from the top cupboard.

"That was when I tried to reach the glass down." Maddy told him as she let her shirt fall. "I didn't say anything because I knew you meant well and you were just having a joke when you picked me up. I didn't want to sound like 'that girlfriend' that just nags and says no all the time."

"Maddy, you wouldn't have been nagging if you'd just said that this was happening." Rhydian gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "What did your parents say?"

"They didn't say much really." Maddy shrugged. I told my mum since there was no fooling her but I explained that it wasn't your fault. Since I know how Dad can get, I just told him I did my bra up too tight. The bruises are in roughly the right place and you only have to so much as hint at that kind of thing and he drops it instantly."

"You know, I have to envy you when it comes to things like that." Rhydian laughed. "If I come back with bruises, Mrs Vaughan wants to know every detail and if I turn round and say 'it's a boy thing' she just gets even more curious and makes me tell her every little detail."

"Wow; that must be annoying." Now it was Maddy's turn to laugh.

"It keeps the roof over my head." Rhydian shrugged.

"Do you want to go for a run?" Maddy asked.

"I suppose we can do." Rhydian looked back at the Christmas tree. He couldn't help but wonder if he should straighten the star up, but decided that this was something Maddy felt she needed to feel she'd done herself. Maybe in a few hours he could stage an 'accident' and then sort it out himself so that he could do it properly.

"Are you coming or not?" Rhydian looked over to see that Maddy was already by the door and grabbing her coat. Shrugging, Rhydian grabbed his own coat and followed after her.

"So, how was Shannon when she rang you last night?" Rhydian asked, breaking into a run to catch up to her.

"She was saying about having Tom over to help her with her own Christmas tree while her parents are away for the weekend." Maddy told him.

"In that case, god only knows what we'll find when we get round there." Rhydian muttered.

"Don't be mean, Rhydian." Maddy rolled her eyes as everything around them passed in a blur from the speed they were moving at.

"Hang on, I just realised something." Rhydian said, looking over at her.

"What?" Maddy asked.

"How are we not there yet?" Rhydian looked at how fast everything was moving around them. Without having to share any words between them, they ground to a halt. "Which turning is it to Shannon's again?"

"I think we've missed by about four turnings." Maddy muttered. "That's never happened before. That's not like us!"

"Yeah, that's really weird." Rhydian shrugged. "Well, I guess we should turn back and keep a closer eye out this time?"

"Let's just go." Maddy groaned, not even wanting to think about why that might have happened. On the way back, they found the right turning and headed down it. Sure enough, Shannon's house came into view a few minutes of running later. They pulled up outside and knocked on the door.

"I wonder what carnage we're going to find." Rhydian muttered.

"Tom's not an idiot, Rhydian." Maddy replied. "He knows better than to go to Shan's place and do anything stupid."

"What's taking Shannon so long to get the door?" Rhydian wondered aloud. Maddy pressed her ear to the door. On the other side, she could hear snoring coupled with rapid and laboured breathing.

"Hang on, I have a spare key." She backed Rhydian up and threw the door open. Rhydian called his wolf forward slightly and keeping it on a low burn to be ready for anything.

"Hello?" Shannon's voice rang through the air. "Hello?"

"What the hell ...?" Maddy and Rhydian couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"Hi." Shannon said; a blush creeping over her face as the teen wolves took in the sight of her dangling from her family's massive Christmas tree by the back of her shirt.

"What happened?" Maddy asked.

"I slipped." Shannon shrugged. "I've been up here an hour and a half."

"Where's Tom?" Maddy asked. Shannon pointed to a pair of feet sticking out from behind the sofa. They ran round to check he was okay to find him passed out and clutching a bottle of some kind.

"Please tell me that isn't Brandy." Rhydian's wolf powered down as he rolled his eyes. "He's not even eighteen yet, Shan!"

"Actually, it was the mince pies that did it." Shannon told him. "We got permission from my mum to put a little bit in so it would bring out the flavour since she knows how responsible I am. I went to the loo and was gone for about four minutes. I got back to see a near-empty bottle and the mince pies in the oven. I thought the alcohol would have cooked out in the oven, so they'd be fine. When I got stuck up here, Tom sat down and ate them to tease me. Then that happened."

Okay, I'll get you down." Rhydian moved forward to grab Shannon under the arms and gently hoist her down.

"What are you doing?" Shannon asked. "You never lift someone that way, you can damage their ribcage."

"Then how do you do it?" Rhydian asked.

"You hook one or two fingers through the belt loop on each side and then the person being lifted puts one hand on your shoulder to keep themselves stable." Shannon told him.

"So _that's_ where we've been going wrong." Rhydian mentally slapped himself across the forehead.

"Don't tell me that was what you've been doing to poor Maddy!" Shannon looked shocked.

"Shan, you will not believe the bruises I have." Maddy said.

"Okay, I think we've established that my approach wasn't always the safest one, but it got results didn't it?" Rhydian growled.

"Yeah, it got results along with bruising my ribs and scaring me half to death." Maddy muttered.

"Well that's your own fault for not saying anything." Rhydian countered. "We've just been over this."

"I know we have." Maddy said. "I already said I forgive you. You didn't know. Now let's just get Shan down before there's an accident."

"Maddy, if there hasn't been one for the hour and a half she's been here then I don't think another few seconds will break her neck." Rhydian replied as Shannon wobbled dangerously on the tree and knocked a bauble off where it fell to the floor and shattered. Both of them exchanged a glance.

"It can wait!" they said in unison. Rhydian reached up as Shannon had told him to and lifted her down a lot easier than he'd ever managed with Maddy. Just then, they heard a heavy groan as Tom slowly picked himself up from behind the sofa.

"You're too late, you useless idiot!" Shannon yelled at him. "Thank you, Rhydian." With that, she turned to him and gave him a peck on the cheek causing Tom to glare and Maddy to let out a growl.

"Cool it, Maddy." Rhydian went over and looped both arms over Maddy's shoulders, pulling her close before planting a kiss on her forehead. Maddy instantly settled down.

"Seriously, what's going on?" Tom asked irritably. "I have such a headache right now I'm ready to start taking painkillers like smarties."

"That's really not a good idea after the amount of alcohol you've had." Maddy said, turning to him.

"What do you mean?" Tom slurred. "I am function one-hundred percent."

"Then why can't you talk properly or stand up straight?" Rhydian asked. Tom indignantly tried to correct himself only to fall over heavily.

"Why did you put that much Brandy in the mince pies?" Shannon asked him. "My parents are going to go mental when they see how little we have left in the bottle."

"I didn't put any in." Tom shrugged. "You put it in and I just grabbed the bottle to make sure nothing happened to it. I don't remember anything after that." Rhydian and Maddy walked into the kitchen and recoiled at the powerful smell of alcohol. As overpowering as it was though, there was another scent underneath. Without pausing, Maddy and Rhydian ran out through the back door with Tom and Shannon staying behind since Tom was too hung over to go anywhere. Frost crunched under the Wolfbloods' feet as they neared the source of the scent. They stopped by the old caravan that was home to a very close friend of theirs.

"Jana, we know you're in there. Come on out!" Maddy called.

"Maddy, it's not CSI." Jana said as she emerged, shivering in the cold air. "What's with all the shouting? Is something wrong?"

"You went to Shannon's place just now, didn't you?" Rhydian asked.

"I got back a couple of hours ago." Jana nodded.

"What happened there?" Rhydian asked.

"Well, I got there and Tom was pouring this golden water into the food that they were making." Jana shrugged. When he went out the room, I decided to prank him. I noticed how careful he was being with the golden water and how much he was putting in, so I just tipped most of the bottle in there between each of the things he was making."

"Jana, that was dangerous!" Maddy couldn't believe Jana had been that stupid. Actually, she could believe it. Jana clearly hadn't known what the stuff was.

"What do you mean?" Jana asked.

"That 'golden water' was called Brandy." Rhydian explained. "It contains alcohol which people our age can't have legally in large doses. The law says your parents can let you have some with food, and Shannon's parents said it was okay for her to put a bit in. The amount you gave Tom was enough to knock him out." Jana burst out laughing at that.

"I bet it looked funny! I'm sad I missed that now!" Jana gasped, trying to breathe.

"It's not funny!" Maddy snapped. "You could have got a lot of people into a lot of trouble there!"

"Oh, come on, Maddy. It was just a prank!" Jana rolled her eyes.

"Jana, you really don't get it." Rhydian let out a breath he had no knowledge of taking. "Alcohol is one of the things you really shouldn't mess around with. If anyone found out, Tom could get in serious trouble, his parents could get in serious trouble and so could Shan and her family. Do you think it would be funny for Shannon and Tom if they were placed in foster care and taken from their families all for the sake of you having a laugh?"

"Can that happen?" Jana's smile vanished.

"It can happen very easily." Rhydian said, not able to meet anyone's gaze properly.

"It would be helpful if I'd known _that_ a bit sooner!" Jana muttered.

"That's why we're telling you now." Rhydian countered. "Don't ever do something like that again. In fact, whenever you see a bottle of anything on the side, just leave it alone and ask someone who might know."

"Okay, I'll do that from now on." Jana nodded. "I'll apologise when I see them at school tomorrow."

" _No_! Definitely do not say anything at school!" Maddy cut in. "If one of the teachers hears, they'll all get in trouble and so will we for covering it up!"

"Then when the hell should I say something about it?" Jana asked. "I have to apologise at some point."

"Just go round and say sorry tomorrow after school." Rhydian shrugged. "That way, Tom might actually be sober enough to listen."

"Okay, I'll do that then." Jana shrugged. "Sorry about this guys. I had no idea."

"We know you didn't." Maddy rolled her eyes. "Just make sure you do well to remember it."

"I will." Jana promised.

"That's good then." Rhydian nodded.

"We'd best head back." Maddy noticed the time. "Mum and Dad are getting home soon and they're going to want to give you the usual Christmas invitation."

"You're right." Rhydian looked at his watch and saw the time. "We'll see you later, Jana." Jana waved them off as they ran in the direction of Maddy's house. When they arrived there, they knew they didn't have much time before Emma and Dan got in.

"Listen Rhydian, we can't tell my parents about what Jana did." Maddy told him. "If they find out she did something like that, they'll throw her out from the territory. That was my Mum's warning about putting one foot out of line."

"Maddy, they've really taken steps to accept Jana into the pack." Rhydian said. "I'm sure they'd understand she just made an honest mistake."

"She could have given Tom alcohol poisoning, Rhydian!" Maddy snapped. "We can't tell them."

"Look, you know where I stand on this." Rhydian wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head gently. "I'm with you, whatever you decide. I'll always have your back." Just then, Rhydian got an idea. He began to slowly work his way around Maddy and run his hands down her sides.

"What are you doing?" Maddy asked, before letting out a scream as he slipped his fingers through the belt loops on her jeans and held onto her hips securely so he could lift her into the air while walking over to the Christmas tree.

"Now for the love of god, straighten up that damn star! It's killing my OCD!"

"Okay, fine!" Maddy snapped as she reached up and moved the star up to the top of the tree and set it straight. Rhydian put her down and she turned round and cuddled into him.

"Are you okay?" Rhydian asked.

"I'm sorry I gave you a hard time earlier." Maddy muttered.

"It's already forgotten." Rhydian replied, gently stroking her hair as he planted a kiss on the top of her head.

"Follow me." Maddy broke away and gestured for him to follow her. They headed upstairs and Maddy led him into her room. He'd barely closed the door behind him before she grabbed him and practically threw him on the bed, walking over and straddling him as she leaned in. Their lips met in that familiar way that made the pair of them see stars and want more. They still had time before Maddy's parents got home, and they planned to make the most of it.

Half an hour later…

Emma and Dan walked through the door. True to their word, Maddy and Rhydian had handled the Christmas decorations on the tree.

"Wow, they certainly did a good job on that." Emma muttered. "They even put the star on properly."

"That must have been Rhydian." Dan laughed. "Maddy can never get it right. Do you remember that time when she was three and she wanted to do it all on her own, so I tied her to a broom handle and used that to hoist her up instead of lifting her?"

"I remember the broom handle breaking because she hadn't lost her puppy fat yet and her falling until I caught her." Emma replied, glaring at her husband. "Where are they anyway?"

"Where do they usually go after they finish the important stuff?" Dan rolled his eyes. "I bet you they'll be on Maddy's bed either sleeping or kissing right now."

"I just hope that's all they're doing." Emma muttered.

"That had _better_ be all they're doing!" Dan growled.

"Dan, they know what is and isn't sensible." Emma sighed, flopping down on the sofa.

"Emma, you and I both know that when you're that age all sense and caution can tend to go out the window. Do you remember when my mum walked in on us?"

"I'm thankful she was so understanding." Emma laughed. "Do you remember when we went to my mum's and she put us in separate rooms? You kept trying to sneak in and she rigged a snare up in the hallway. I remember your face as you were hanging there by your ankle." Emma wanted to say more, but she just couldn't stop laughing.

"Why do you think I took up woodwork and found my talent with it?" Dan asked.

"Still, I really think we should leave them be." Emma shrugged. "We have to have faith that they can handle some matters on their own and do the sensible thing when it counts. If we don't show them trust, they'll never grow up."

"Maybe I don't want Maddy to grow up." Dan replied, sitting next to Emma and wrapping his arm around her. "Growing older is inevitable as we well know. Growing up is optional and I think if Maddy had a choice she'd choose to stay a teenager forever."

"Dan, while growing up is optional; she is going to grow older." Emma reminded him. "You just said so yourself. As she ages, she's going to want to grow up with it to a degree. It's going to be her job to find that natural balance and we can't help her with that. That's something that can never be taught; only learned."

"You're right as always." Dan muttered. "Honestly, I really don't like this bit. From here, she'll either take off running or fall flat on her face. She's more than capable of the former, but if the latter happens then we'll be the ones who have to deal with the fallout and you know how hard she was hit when Rhydian left. Do you really want to have to deal with _that_ again?"

"Dan, I will gladly deal with anything that should come up just as much as you will." Emma said, grabbing the remote and switching the TV on. "This is our daughter we're talking about and she's nearly a woman. We're getting to the point where we can't decide what does and doesn't come up anymore. What we can decide is how far we can let it go before stepping in and we can decide how far we let her fall before we feel she's sufficiently realised she's made a stupid decision. But no matter what, we'll always be there to catch her."

"I know we will." Dan reached over and rested his hand on top of Emma's. "Trust me; I'll be there for her if and when the time comes. I just hope it never does. Just in case though, I think to be on the safe side we should start making a few Christmas wishes.

 **End!**

 **Author's Note: So, this is my Christmas Wolfblood Oneshot. Sorry this is so short but this one proved slightly tricky actually. It got to the point that I feel like if I put any more in, it'll just be cluttered. I hope you've all enjoyed this. I'll continue updating Blood Moon when I can. I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas. Please remember to review and let me know what you think.**


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